Edie's sullen eyes came back to life. Kat finally stopped sniveling, and their mom had a look of relief that Sam hadn't seen since things were normal a few days ago. Sam thought it was the unknown that made everything worse. Now they had the knowledge that there were other survivors out there. They could hang on to their shred of faith that had been tattered to pieces.
"She is sayin to stay in your home if at all possible. Water supplies are safe to drink and should last until help arrives." he paused, "the United States military will be going door to door to bring in any survivors for quarantine. Ships are continuing to transport uninfected people to the islands near Puerto Rico which are currently infection free. Estimates are in the thousands of survivors. Do not enter city limits. Cities and towns with large populations are rampant with infected persons." Quinn smiled at his rendition of the broadcast.
Edie and Kat joined hands smiling and jumping up and down. Kirsten wanted Sam to pick her up to hug her. Their mom appeared suspicious of the good news, but still looked somewhat relieved.
Kat couldn’t contain her excitement, "we're gonna be saved!"
"I wonder when they'll get to us. Do you think they will find the house out here?" Bobbi questioned. "Hold up a minute guys," Sam hated bursting their bubble, but they needed to see the reality. “Do you really want to take your chances with the military? Bobbi, you and Edie both saw what happened with David, what if they think we're infected? What if we are infected, but we're somehow immune? They'll kill us either way. We need to stick to our plan and get to those ships!"
"You're such a buzz kill Sam!" Kat and Edie dropped their interlocked arms. "Yeah Sammy, a big giant buzzard killer." Kirsten piped in leading the group into spontaneous laughter. Even Sam couldn’t help herself from laughing after that.
The blazer was loaded to the brim. Sam, Quinn, and Bobbi had taken the shell off the back to give them more room for supplies and people. Even with the additional headroom they were tightly packed. They decided to take a detour to the school and try to see what happened there. Sam was sure that their plans to leave would be even more necessary after seeing the school's aftermath.
Sam decided they would park at the convenience store and hope that no one would hear the loud engine. They were traveling during the day which was against mom's better judgment, but Sam proclaimed that she couldn't stay in dads house another minute. The Department of Defense broadcast had not given any further information, but the snippet they had listened to was enough to keep the hope alive.
They rounded the corner where they could catch a glimpse of the school just past the convenience store. It didn't appear to be as bombarded with military equipment as it was when they made their escape a couple of days ago. There was a giant helicopter near the front entrance of the school, but less trucks and Humvees than anyone would have estimated. "Sam, try not to use the gas too much so they don't hear us coming." Mom advised. Sam slowed her steady movement down the barren street allowing the truck to chug to an idle rather than a deafening roar. She glided into the back alley and cut the engine. There was still no sign of anyone alive or undead on their path to the school.
Once again, Olivia had a plan. A plan that Sam would never agree to. Olivia would have to implement it immediately. Before words of restraint could utter from Sam's lips, Olivia was sprinting at lightning speed toward the school. The fact that it was daytime did manage to inhibit her newly acquired fearlessness, but once she started there was no turning back. She stopped momentarily at the entrance to the unfinished gym to assess the state she had put Sam in. She presumed if steam could literally come from her ears it would have. She couldn't yell for Olivia to stop or come back for fear of discovery, so she had to wait impatiently with the rest of the group for Olivia's return. Quinn and Bobbi were issuing fist pumps in the air to Olivia, adding to the rage building in Sam.
Olivia ran into the gym hoping to get some clue as to the happenings inside the school. The hole where they had exited from the walls had been hastily boarded up. Apparently someone had discovered their escape. The gym left no clues for Olivia to report to the group. She didn't want to return with nothing to share. She continued to the back exit of the gym. The door didn't have a window so she would have to trust her instinct as to whether it was safe to open it. She placed her shaking fingers on the bar to open the industrial door.
"Olivia!" She heard same unmistakable voice in a loud whisper. “Stop, there's someone out there, I can hear them." Olivia's fingers retreated from the door like she had touched a hot burner on the stove. "I know your mad." Was all Olivia could manage to say.
"Next time you decide to run off without telling me first I'm gonna pull your hair straight out of your skull!" Olivia couldn't help giggling, but she continued on to more serious matters, "I think there's two of them, I hear something about the hourly perimeter check and how it sucks having to look at all the dead ones."
"That doesn't sound good Sam." This is not what Olivia was expecting. She had hoped that all their friends and teachers had been transported to the ships, but from what Sam just said, it didn't sound like that was the case.
They waited for about ten minutes more when Sam decided that it was all clear. The sun had already waned behind the walls of the gym indicating that evening was approaching. Sam pushed the door open slowly while conducting surveillance on the open field for military personnel. Sam wedged her backpack in the door frame to keep it from locking them out, they squeezed out and along the wall into a shroud of bushes that lined the wall. Black tarps covered the library windows making it impossible to see in or out.
They didn't need to see what was happening inside the school. The open field told the gruesome tale. A large bulldozer waited silently in front of deep open ditches where dozens of dead bodies were strewn. Olivia didn’t want to admit what she saw in front of her eyes. If Edie and Kat had seen this, they would have been brought to tears already. Olivia wanted to cry but she knew Sam would get mad at her even more than she already was. Olivia would hold strong for as long as possible given the scenery.
There was no time to contemplate emotions, military personnel still wearing gas masks and biohazard fatigues marched a group of students and teachers in formation toward the mass graves. They had their hands over their heads. Olivia recognized most of them, but they looked as if they had not slept in days. The girls were crying and pleading with the soldiers. The soldiers refused to look at the group. Mr. Mata was the leader of the group and tried to negotiate with the soldiers. From Sam and Olivia's position, they could hear the conversation play out.
“Please, just think about this, I know you have to follow orders, but we haven’t gotten sick yet. We may be immune, we may not even be contagious. Please, these are just kids, at least give them a chance. You can lock us up if you want to, but please not this and not like this. We deserve to die in dignity.”
The soldiers completely ignored Mr. Mata’s request and instructed the group to face the piles of bodies in the ditch. “May God save your souls, and ours.” The leader of the soldiers proclaimed before issuing the order, “On three" The pause was deafening. " One. Two. Three.” Shots from their machine guns rang out over the setting sun. One by one the bodies dropped to the ground and into the awaiting graves.
Olivia couldn’t stifle the raw emotions that were opened. Sam held her hand to my mouth in order to keep me quiet, but the sound that managed to escape was enough to prick the ears of a soldier. “Over there, by the gym!” Sam tugged at my sleeve to pull me through the propped door as shots followed our footsteps.
“Go! Go! Go!” They heard the soldiers behind them at the door, unable to open it.
“Go ahead of me Olivia! Get mom to start the Blazer!” Sam ordered.
Olivia flashed to the convenience store and the awaiting, worried faces of Kat and Aunt Lizzy. “We heard shots!” Aunt Lizzy grabbed Olivia's shoulders, “where’s Sam?”
“She’s coming, get the Blazer started!” Aunt Lizzy was in the driver’s
seat attempting to wake the beast. It sounded like it was flooded and refused to cooperate with Aunt Lizzy’s attempts. Sam was soon yelling to Aunt Lizzy to move out of the way as the foot soldiers were not far behind. Humvees were starting their engines in the background in pursuit of our group. Sam jumped in the driver’s seat and used her finesse to start the engine mere seconds before the foot soldiers reached their position. The soldiers continued to shoot at the Blazer; Olivia was sure that they would get a tire or hit one of them in the process. Kat and Edie sheltered Kirsten on the floor of the Blazer. Quinn and Bobbi popped off a few shots from their rifles that they had brought from Sam and Kat’s father’s house. The foot soldiers gave up their pursuit as the Blazer sped down the road, but the influx of Humvees and military trucks made their collective heart stop. They had no hope of escape.
“Sam, go down the drainage gulley off Avenue C, we can get to the car wash and duck out in there!” Aunt Lizzy screamed over the roar of the Blazer.
The following minutes were harrowing and terrifying. Sam turned the Blazer down the drainage ditch just out of the sight of the impending military convoy. There was just enough overgrowth to hide their position long enough to make it to the car wash. Smoke began pouring out of the sides of the hood.
“C’mon girl, just a little further.” Sam coaxed.
The engine roared louder under the strain of speed and the heavy brush we were off-roading through. They could still see the brigade of military vehicles in pursuit. They had temporarily lost them in the brush covered ditch, but if the engine failed it would only be a matter of time before they were found. They could just see the teetering sign of the carwash just ahead. Just one more hill to conquer and they were there. The Blazer made its last ounce of effort to sludge up the hill and into the darkened bay of the car wash. The cover of night would further enhance their ability to evade capture by the military. Sam turned the key and the engine spat a few times before its’ resignation. No one had the courage to speak. The collective sound of their racing heartbeats and heavy breathing were enough to fill the space. The military units were driving all around the hideout, but they had managed to duck inside just in time to maintain concealment. The fate of their transportation was questionable at best. Quinn had managed to open the hood with minimal noise to allow the steam to escape.
Kirsten had been crying ever since the shooting began. Sam scooped her into her arms and managed to get her calmed down. "That was scary Sammy, I don't like those scary men." she whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.
"I know baby, I was scared too." Sam comforted. The group honestly believed that very little scared Sam anymore, but her words would placate Kirsten for now. Lizzy remained in the passenger seat of the blazer, still in her own state of shock.
"Mom, are you ok?" Kat questioned. Aunt Lizzy was slow to respond, "I'm fine honey." She answered robotically, but something was not right about her tone.
"Mom, you're bleeding!" Kat screeched in a whisper. Aunt Lizzy looked extremely pale and her movements were listless at best. A large blood stain soaked her right side near her rib. "I'm fine, really, it's just a little nick." she attempted to smile and stumbled out of the Blazer, Kat was there to catch her from falling to the concrete floor of the darkened car wash bay. Night had settled in leaving them in nearly complete darkness except for the flashlight Kirsten had brought from Sam's dad's house. The outside noise from the Humvees and trucks had dissipated. Aunt Lizzy shook her head a few times to maintain consciousness. The blood stain grew sizeable due to her abrupt movement out of the Blazer.
“Mom, you’re not ok!” Sam insisted and rested her mom in her lap on the floor. “Fix her, Kat!” Involuntary tears welled up in Sam’s eyes.
It was too much for Kat to take after losing her father. She placed her hands on her mom’s ribcage and closed her eyes. Aunt Lizzy took in a few gasps and grunted in pain. The blood continued to darken her shirt and dripped to the concrete, Kat’s healing was not taking effect on the massive wound that Aunt Lizzy had tried to hide.
“Try harder Kat!” Sam commanded.
“I’m doing the best I can!” Kat screeched back at Sam with large tears rolling down her cheeks. “Try pulling her shirt up and putting your hands directly on the wound, maybe you have to remove the bullet first.” Edie suggested. Edie was a television hospital drama addict and probably knew more than the local clinic when it came to unusual circumstances. Sam pulled up Aunt Lizzy’s shirt to reveal the extent of the injury that was much worse than she had let on. The wound was open and flowing a steady amount of dark red blood. The bullet must have been lodged in her ribcage because the blood was only visible from the front of her torso.
“What do I do Sam? It’s so bad.” Kat resigned herself to defeat.
“We need to get the bullet out first, like Edie said.” Sam agreed. “We have a first aid kit in the Blazer.” Olivia ran to the back of the Blazer and found the kit that didn’t have enough supplies to accomplish the major surgery that was needed in this situation. She dug through the kit and handed Edie the alcohol swabs and a tweezer.
“Ok, Mom Lizzy, this is gonna hurt, but you have to stay as still as possible.” Edie coached. Edie took a swab and washed her hands first and then took one to wash the perimeter of Lizzy’s open wound. Blood washed away the light coating of alcohol. With steady fingers Edie assessed the wound causing Lizzy to grimace in pain. Edie reached a finger into the wound and moved around as gently as possible but the movement was enough to make Lizzy cry out in intense anguish. Her breathing took on a heavy momentum as blood dripped from the side of her mouth. “I think I have it Mom Lizzy, hang in there.”
“You can’t leave me mom, I need you.” Sam admitted her vulnerability. Aunt Lizzy slipped into unconsciousness from the pain. Edie continued to work on dislodging the bullet as massive amounts of blood dripped to the floor. The hope of saving Aunt Lizzy diminished with each passing second. Edie pulled the fractured bullet out as Kat placed her hands over the wound. Within seconds the blood stopped pouring out. The wound appeared to be connecting together slowly from edge to edge. Mere seconds passed and the wound appeared to be nothing more than a scar with dried blood.
Chapter 10
Kat was exhausted from healing her mom, but she knew if she opened her mouth to say anything, Sam would shut her up. The horde was closing in on them, but the Blazer would not start. Sam tried and tried, but it was obvious that it had already driven to its final destination. If they had to try to leave on foot, they would have to leave all the supplies behind which meant they might not get to eat again for who knows how long. Sam persisted on trying to start the Blazer even though there was no hope for resurrection.
"Sam, they're getting closer, I don't think we can wait any longer." Quinn coerced as the horde picked up speed. The smell of blood must have given their position away.
"If we leave on foot, we have to leave our supplies!" Sam persisted. "Sam, it's a lost cause, we just have to take what we can." Mom quietly pleaded. Mom was in no position to make a run for it, but they were all aware that their fate hinged on escaping the undead and the soldiers that were hell bent on killing them like they had their classmates and teachers. Mom began gathering what she could carry, ignoring the fact that Sam was still trying to start the Blazer. Kat followed suit and gathered as many bullets and supplies that she could carry in her backpack along with the supplies she already had in there. Everyone, except Sam, did the same, but most of the food and water supplies would have to remain behind. Kat wondered how long they could travel on foot, especially with mom in her exhausted condition. Kat was on the verge of collapse as well, but Sam would just be mad at her for saying so.
The first undead made his way into their space and quickly found the blood pool on the ground. It was just enough to distract him from coming at them. They waited for Sam at the exit side of the car wash, she continued to try to start the Blazer.
"Sam! We gotta go now!" Olivia insisted as more and more undead discov
ered the blood. It was not enough to satisfy their thirst, they pricked their heads in the direction of the group and left the blood behind for pursuit of live sustenance. Sam grabbed her bow and sling of arrows and led the group into the darkened cover of night. The undead followed only steps behind. Sam helped mom move at a brisker pace than she was capable of. Quinn carried Kirsten over his shoulder while his other shoulder harnessed a garret of supplies. They certainly didn't have enough supplies to last very long, but their immediate goal was simply to survive the night.
Traveling this night was much more cumbersome and frightening than it had been when they left the school a couple of days ago. Back then they still had hope that this whole thing would just blow over. Now they knew that this was the way life as they knew it. An unrelenting race to escape death. Day in, day out, they would be on the run. People they loved would be killed or hurt, they could never go home again, never know when their next meal would come, or when they would be able to sleep a full night through. They were living in hell on earth and Kat wasn't even sure that she wanted to be a part of it. Her legs could feel the burn of the constant drudgery across the open field behind the carwash. They were headed to the impound lot, that required scaling an 8 foot privacy fence. There was no way around the fence, as undead closed in around them on all sides. It was almost as if they were waiting for their luck to run out, they had slowed their pace knowing that they had nowhere to go. Sam scaled the fence with ease and Olivia took a flying leap with her new ability. Sam positioned herself near the top of the fence and waited for Quinn to hand over Kirsten. The undead caught on to their plan of escape and became frenzied in their pursuit. The angry mob closed in at a remarkable pace. Bobbi and Edie helped each other up the fence and teetered a few inches from the top, but managed to find a stronghold just out of the reach of undead hands trying to grab at them. Kat waited with mom knowing that she was in no shape to make the effort to climb the precarious chain-link.
Undead Rising- Transcendendence Reborn Page 8